Yesterday I sat on the sofa watched the American elections, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney waving flags for the same cause but just with different ideas on how to move their country forward. Obama promising to strengthen the economy with Romney promising to fix it, Romney explaining Obama’s failures and explaining how he can achieve a better change while Obama focusing on change and reminding the voters of his achievements. It went on and on for a while with the western media explaining very clear in detail, it was so interesting for me as someone who was born in Uganda during Idi Amin’s regime, then grew up in Dr Milton Obote’s autocratic government then ended up joining the Rwandese Patriotic Front which later President Kagame became the leader. I then immediately recalled what is going on back home with Madame Ingabire Umuhoza who is imprisoned for just daring to form a political party, the FDU-Inkingi, to run against Paul Kagame. Generals who saved our nation when they were desperately needed are now in exile. Normal citizens were forced to vote in Kagame’s favour with the members of parliaments appointed, not elected, what a nation? Not only President Kagame and his unconvincing politics but most countries in Africa are experiencing the same scenario, West African countries are even going through coup d’état what Africa??

Now that President Obama is re-elected we all hope he may focus on foreign policy, like his predecessors on their last term they looked on that particular policy towards the end of their second term.

President Paul Kagame who is typically praised for stopping the 1994 genocide is now regarded as one of the master minders of everything that happened in Rwanda during the genocide as noted in the Mapping Report http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ4tvOXsxCw

As indicated in the current UN report as well as the Human rights watch report, the region has been unsettled due to Kagame’s wars in the Congo. The M23 is one of the rebel groups that has made Kagame benefit from the man made humanitarian crisis but also scratch his head. This particular rebel group which still threatens the region has led to many questions being asked in western countries. Aid has been stopped by many countries due to Kagame’s influence in the Congo and On the 13th/11/12 the British government will discuss whether to discontinue or approve their large amount of aid to Rwanda. Many are eager to learn the findings and how the decision will be made after exchanging and abundance of evidence. This will be a big challenge for the members of parliament, as Kagame has immediately and abruptly sentenced Mrs. Victorie Ingabire Umuhoza’s to an eight year sentence. According to the Rwandan laws once someone is sentenced you can argue with the punishment not the reason for the sentence. So the western countries remain with many questions on whether the Rwandan government is maintaining justice in regards to political prisoners however it should not only be about Ingabire, it should be about every political prisoner being held in Rwanda.

Kagame is now anxious about the outcome of the 13th/11/12 parliament hearing on Rwandan aid. The International Development Committee will examine the decision by the Department for International Development to withhold, and subsequently disburse, budget support to the Government of Rwanda following allegations about the Rwandan Government’s role in the conflict in eastern DRC, and the decision of other donors who withdrew budget support not to reinstate it. The first evidence session will be on the 13th/11/12 and the average Rwandan citizen is struggling to afford their basic needs. The ruling party, Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF), and Kagame its chairman himself are pumping every nation’s penny in business making certain that his companies are functioning well while begging for the donors to continue sending aid, and making the average Rwandan pay more while earning less or even nothing.

The RPF has retained a dominant position in many walks of life.

The movement’s investment arm, Crystal Ventures, controls assets worth more than $500m inside the country, according to insiders. The group owns a construction and road-building company, granite and tile factories, a furniture company, a chain of upmarket coffee shops (in Kigali, Boston, London, Washington and New York), a real estate developer and an agro-processing venture, Inyange. It also retains a stake in MTN, the leading mobile phone operator.

This makes it perhaps the largest quasi-private business venture in the country, and with 7,000 staff, the second-largest employer after the state. It also puts the ruling party in an enviable position when it comes to financing politics. Relative to the size of the country, the RPF is one of the best endowed political movements in the world. In the subregion, only Ethiopia’s ruling EPRDF, under Meles Zenawi, the recently deceased prime minister, has built a more formidable business empire.

Professor Nshuti Manasseh, chairman of the board of Crystal Ventures, says half the RF1.5bn ($2.4m) cost of RPF campaigning in 2010 elections was met by donations from party members, the other half from company coffers. “We came in when contributions fell short,” he says. “From the beginning, we said we should have our own resources so that we are not indebted either to business people who want favours or foreign people like Gaddafi,” says Mr Musoni, referring to the late Libyan leader’s penchant for using cash for influence among his African peers.

By necessity, at first, the RPF pioneered new business. Initially, according to Mr Musoni, this involved trading, financing small enterprises, and taking charge of the coffee crop that had been left to rot. But with time, the movement’s investment arm became more strategic.

In 1995, it launched Inyange, an agro-processing venture that has grown into one of Rwanda’s largest companies producing bottled water, milk and fruit juices. In 1998 it persuaded South Africa’s MTN to provide mobile phone services in what looked then like a marginal market. The RPF fronted much of the capital required. Crystal Ventures has since sold down its 49 percent stake twice, earning $110m, according to Prof Manasseh.

It was a shrewd investment. Less so, perhaps, was what happened to the proceeds. The group bought two executive jets, which it then leased to – among others – President Kagame, from a base in South Africa.

Nor has that been the only controversy involving RPF-linked businesses who were accused by UN experts of plundering mineral resources during neighbouring Congo’s wars. Another frequent charge is that they have crowded out other investors, and enjoyed favoured status when it comes to government contracts.
Crystal Ventures’ Intersec, for example is the only private security outfit authorised to carry arms. “Where there is lucrative business they (RPF) control it. Things are not as open as you think,” says a prominent business person in Kigali.

Professor Manasseh however, rejects the charge. “Our objective is not to monopolise. The interest of the party was to run businesses if there were no other investors,” he says.

Crystal Ventures is now considering selling Inyange (Kenya’s Brookside, owned by the Kenyatta family is interested). It intends to sell off its “Bourbon” coffee shops for franchise, and is debating whether to offload its 20 per cent stake in the Rwandan Investment Group, a $70m venture capital fund. Mr Musoni says the party also plans to list several interests on the Kigali stock exchange.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7fcab78c-ff1b-11e1-a4be-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2BWKoyOJX

Kagame and his RPF have turned to selling shares to foreigners; this has always been done by Captain Hatari Sekoko, Kagame’s right hand man in business. He has been working closely with the Chinese investors who he used to borrow money from RDB (Rwanda Development Bank), after that they bought the plot which involved Jari Club formerly known as 5th Nyakanga Hotel, they also bought the Muhima police station land and moved the as far as Gitega. This Chinese investor in the names of Billy used to be a blocker in Hong Kong, has been an influential figure in helping Kagame wire transfer money into safe havens such as Mauritius and some South American countries. He was misled though and was made to sign the paperwork worth 20% shares when he actually owns nothing in this business, the new hotel known as Marriott is being built and will be known as Billy’s when its actually owned by Kagame himself. The Chinese Company which built Kagame’s house, Kigali Tower, which Kagame forced to move the Bus station just to get that plot, was also given to his son Ivan Cyomoro last month. This comes after some complaints from the construction company CC claiming that until today they are still demanding to get paid for the men used while building this particular house.

With these examples of financial abundance in Kagame’s Rwanda one has to wonder why his search for foreign aid is so rabid. With the amount of revenue from Crystal Ventures, the abundance of properties, airplanes and vehicles what exactly is Paul Kagame using the foreign aid for? Has there been any accountability or legitimate reports conducted by outsiders for the use of foreign aid ever been conducted? Who holds the government of Rwanda accountable? The RPF is known for doctoring their own reports and news (read The New Times and Andrew Mwenda) so an outside agency would be required in order for an accountability report to be legitimate. Although, anyone who knows about Rwanda knows they do not look kindly at outsiders investigating them, because the truth always comes out.
In light of the assets Kagame has amassed hopes are high that the UK will continue to hold Kagame accountable by suspending aid until his backing of the rebel groups in Congo cease. Reinstating the aid to Rwanda will only serve to reward Kagame for destabilizing a neighbouring country.
Noble Marara